What is the definition of reality?
by Greghero
Summary: All the players in SAO fought to get out one day. But what happens when Akihiko Kayaba is forced to scann into the game all the players frying their brain in the real life but keeping their conscioussness alive in the game?
1. Prologue

Prologue

 **Hithcliff POV**

Hithcliff was a very busy man. He had to run the most powerful guild in all of SAO. Certainly it sounds cool but it has way too many trivial duties for him to actually enjoy it. He lazily stood up from his desk and walked to the window of his castle. His gaze distant. Letting himself be absorbed in the view of his ownership. Players were training their skills in sparring duels. He just watched them fight. Parrying, blocking, attacking over and over again getting better with every try.

His prized lieutenant overseeing. She was mostly known as the flash but he preferred to call her Asuna. A fairly sweet name. Had a melodic ring to it.

His gazing was interrupted by a knock on the door behind him. He turned around and grudgingly sat down on his desk, straightened his cloak and said evenly

'Come in.'

The door opened and revealed a black haired young man in a white coat and two swords strapped on his back walking inside in a relaxed pace. The young man sat down on the chair at the opposite end of Hithcliff's desk and looked at him in the eye. Hithcliff broke the silence first.

'So Kirito, what brings you here?' He said breaking a smile to the young man. Kirito shifted his weight and his body language said he was uneasy. Then he spoke.

'I came here to report from the mission you set for me.' He said his tone even and collected in sharp contrast with his finger drumming. Hithcliff gave him a sardonic smile.

'And since when do you give me your reports face to face. You usually either PM me or you have Asuna do it for you.' He said in an amused tone. Kirito seemed to stiffen a bit but then he relaxed and sighed.

'Ok you got me. But first the report, then the unofficial business.' He said now obviously more laid back since he didn't need to pretend

'Deal, now what is going on in the world? How many players are in the front lines?' He inquired. The expression of the swordsman suddenly became very formal.

'Worse than we thought. People have lost too many of their close ones and are too scared to go to the high level floors. The way this is going we won't have enough people for a boss battle and we will be stuck.' He said in one breath.

'Well that is indeed bad. Have they completely given up hope on escaping or are they just afraid of going?'

'Actually a little bit of both. Their subconscious forces them to accept the current conditions as they are and continue because otherwise they will have to face the fear of dying and they can't stand that anymore. But they still have some hope of getting out someday. It is just buried far too deep and they seem to purposefully ignore it.'

'I see' Hithcliff looked lost in thought for a second before continuing. 'So what is the unofficial matter?' He asked happily. Over the last months he had taken a liking to the boy. He had become like a son to him. His hobbies, fascinations, dreams, intelligence and behavior, all reminded him of himself in his younger years. He considered that duel and deal with him one of the greatest choices he had made since the game had started.

'I want to take a vacation.' He said

'Sure' Hithcliff responded non-chalantly. Kirito looked a bit shocked

'Sure? I thought you would object' he said taken aback

'Why would I?' He said innocently

'Because you are a slave driver?' He almost asked playfully

'Oh that hurt.' He said in mock hurt. 'But I also understand why you say this. Independently of that though I believe that newlyweds deserve to have some alone time'

Kirito not even bothering to ask how he knew Asuna would be coming with him he just said

'Well then… thanks' He said hesitantly

'You are welcome' He said 'Now off you go I will PM you if the need arises' he responded

'See you then.' And with that he stood up from his chair and went through the door leaving Hithcliff with a ton of work.

Despite his work Hithcliff couldn't stop a smile from creeping into his face

 **Suguha POV**

This was officially the worst day of her life. She walked inside the hospital on the waiting room with other soon to be widows and orphans. Many of them tried to cheer up one another. She just sat in a corner of the room. Trying to block everything out. Hoping for a miracle.

Doctors came and took groups of people to say their final goodbyes. She didn't want to. She knew that she had to but she also knew that saying goodbye means she allows her brother to die. She didn't want that.

When her name was called she shuddered. She reluctantly stood up and walked at the end of her group towards the patient rooms. When she saw him, her heart clenched. She saw him still alive. Breathing. She didn't want him to die. She reached out to hold his hand but she stopped mid-way. She couldn't. She was a traitor now. She had allowed him to die. Convinced enough to sign by the things they had told her. "This is no life" "End his suffering". What a load of crap. He was still alive. As long as his heart was beating there was hope. He could be saved. Who knew how close they were to finishing the game.

But now she had signed and there was nothing she could do.

'I-I am really sorry brother' she whimpered. She ran out of the room with tears in her eyes. Her brother had 1 more minute before they pull the plug of the hospital. She didn't want to see him fried. She ran, she got out, she ran, she ran into the streets, she ran… never looking back.

 **Hithcliff POV**

It was a madhouse. Notifications popping everywhere saying that players were getting unplugged. He was watching while guild members. HIS guild members were shattering left and right. His eyes fell on the newlywed couple. They were watching helpless around. They hugged and shattered. Rage began welling up in Hithcliff's mind.

'NOOOOOOOOO' He shouted 'YOU WILL NOT RUIN MY WORLD'

He teleported into the administrator room from where he controlled the game. His fingers running wildly on keyboards. First issuing the order of stalling the frying of all these people's brains. Then he had to make a choice. He could let them all walk out freely or he could bring them all in the game scanning their brains. He had perfected the technology in case he needed to do it at the end of the game.

While deciding his conversation with Kirito popped into his mind. They didn't have the will to continue their journey to the real world. They had settled for the virtual.

'So be it.' He said decisively

He typed scan then enter. Then all the people in SAO had their brains melted.


	2. What is happening?

**What is Happening?**

 **Kirito POV**

'What's going on?' He asked when he saw the first person shatter. His hands automatically going for his swords strapped on his back.

The said person was a simple soldier. A cheerful man all-around. He wasn't too strong or too weak. He wasn't a high ranking officer; he was just a normal player. One moment he was having a conversation with Kirito about which floor is the best for a residence and the next he had become glittering indigo pixels.

No attack had occurred. After all they were inside a safe zone so why did he die? He removed his arms from the hilts of his weapons but he was still tense.

He scanned around him. Everyone was looking at the place where their former comrade once stood. All were just as petrified as Kirito was.

Then the second shatter happened. A guy near the stables shattered, then another, then another.

Soon the whole courtyard was shining with the shiny pixels.

In a world where those pixels were the equivalent of blood it was a terrifying image but Kirito didn't care as there was one thing and one thing only going through his head at the moment.

'Asuna' he whispered under his breath.

Suddenly he broke off into a crazy dash. He wasn't certain where he was going. He didn't have the time to think but he ran shouting her name.

His eyes registered the door to her working desk. He barged in so strongly the door popped an immortal object window meaning that the system thought Kirito was trying to destroy it.

'ASUNA' he shouted but there was nothing. No one was here. He left just as quickly as he came in.

His brain was shouting that he was missing a piece of the bigger picture but he just couldn't identify it. What was he forgetting?

He went outside again only to see the gates.

'The gates, that's it! That's where we would meet after I was done preparing to leave!' He thought but out loud he shouted again 'ASUNA'

Suddenly a voice answered his call 'KIRITO'

It was coming from the front but he didn't see her. He reached the arch of the gates but before he could run out of the headquarters an arm grabbed his own and pulled him from his course.

Suddenly he felt he was being squashed in a hug.

'Kirito you are alive!' She said with relief her tears moistening the skin of his neck

At a loss of words because of the extreme emotion he was feeling he just returned the hug putting one hand around her shoulders and another around her waist. He suddenly felt his knees get weak. He unwillingly knelt down dragging Asuna with him. Still embracing.

'Kirito, what is going on?' She said in between sobs.

'I don't know I am sorry' He said trying to be as comforting as he could. 'But don't worry everything is going to be fine. I am here.' He said trying to tighten his grip only to realize he didn't have any control over his body anymore. Why? What was going on?

'I know' she said. Suddenly she looked up into his eyes. She opened her mouth 'Kirito I…' At that moment she shattered and Kirito fell forward face first.

Before what happened before him sunk in he also shattered his whole world filling with black.

He passed out.


	3. Maybe it was all a dream

**Maybe it was all a dream?**

 **Asuna POV**

The darkness receded from her field of vision and what she saw had her feeling like she just woke up from a bad dream.

She was back.

Back to where it all started.

Back to the town of beginnings on the plaza where her life changed.

She was back there for the first time since _that_ day. She had left and never looked back. Leveling up, grinding, and working herself until she fainted, all in order to get out of this hellish game.

Could this all have been a dream? Those 2 years of suffering and fighting?

A small part of her desperately hoped she hadn't spent 2 years inside the game. But her logical part of the brain knew this could never be true no matter how much she wished it to be so.

A simple look on her body assured her that was the case as her equipment was way too high level for a beginner.

She suppressed the shock and logic took over. She wasn't the rich girl she was before. She had survived on the frontlines of this deathtrap for a whole year now. She had been in more stressful and dangerous situations before. This couldn't even compare to being surrounded by high level monsters and not having a teleportation crystal. She shivered at the memory.

She started paying closer attention to her surroundings. People were here just like last time but that was where the similarities ended. The place was the same and the faces were familiar but that's it.

Nothing else was similar. There were fewer people, as many had died in that 1 year, and the ones that had remained weren't the same. These ones looked nothing like the crying, terrified, complaining and cowardice mob that was present last time. Since then they had seen close ones die. They had probably come close to death themselves more than once. Experiences like those can change a person.

After the initial confusion they had nothing that even resembled fear. No if anything looked furious. Furious and determined.

She then shuddered. Where was Kirito? He was holding her before they passed out. She suddenly paled.

Could he be…

No, no way it was Kirito. He wouldn't die on her.

Yeah but people all around suddenly started… shattering what if

She maniacally looked around trying to find his trademark black coat. It was nowhere.

Then she started noticing that everyone looked bigger than her. Then she looked down and two of her worries went away at the same time. One was that she had gotten shorter. It was just that she was kneeling down.

The second was where Kirito was. He was lying on her lap pillow.

'Oh there he is.' She said relieved. She then thought about it again. 'Wait… _What?'_ She exclaimed. It wasn't like this was the first time he used her lap pillow but seriously they were in _the middle of the crowd of all the players of Aincrad. This was_ _ **super**_ _embarrassing._

But the relief canceled a bit of the embarrassment while she slightly slapped him on the cheek.

'Kirito I have food for you.' She whispered in his ear. That was enough to make him jump up head-butting Asuna in the process

'Where? Eh… Ah Asuna? What is it? Where are we? More importantly are you okay? Why is your nose bleeding?' Kirito stood up looking around scanning the environment. Trying to understand what happened then suddenly he stood still and very slowly turned to Asuna like he had seen a ghost.

'Wait' He said under his breath 'Bleeding?'

Then it hit her. There was no blood in SAO. She whipped her nose and examined the red liquid disbelievingly. Why? How?

'Kirito what is going on?' She asked for the second time in 20 minutes. And then blood started coming out of the ground.

 **A/N: Hello people. Greghero here. This story can go into waaaaaaay too many different directions but I will only write one of them and I want to be certain which one is going to be the best. For this reason and the fact that I have great inspiration and love for 2 other stories of mine (The day the world was painted red [SAO fanfic]) and (War changes people [Artemis Fowl fanfic]) I will probably not update this for a while. I would appreciate your support though on the rest of my fanfics. That's a subtle way of begging you to check my other SAO fanfic (The revenge of the king of darkness) because I believe that if you liked this one you are going to fall in love with the other one. It is about Kirito taking revenge on Black Coffin for killing his sister (His sister came with him on day 1) and using the guild they had created for this reason. It is an all out war between the front lines and the LC. I also put in some small tweaks like different races and NPCs that are sentient but no magic. AND I gave it a feel of reality (*wink,wink*trust me I don't want to spoil it for you but it is a twist I enjoyed greatly writing). It has pretty mature themes though (gore, politics, programming, biology, romance, ethics, ideology, Kayaba's god complex, Kirito's hero complex and more psychology [I feel like MatPat sometimes. Debating psychology and all kinds of science through videogames and all]). So please give it a chance. Thank you very much for your understanding and as always glad to entertain you!**


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